Oil prices up and down after mixed reports on housing, manufacturing and jobs

Oil prices waiver on mixed economic news

Oil prices headed higher Thursday after an initial retreat as reports on jobs, manufacturing and home sales gave mixed signs about the economy.

Benchmark oil for October delivery rose 30 cents to $74.21 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices dropped as low as $73.11 in early trading.

Meanwhile, the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline was $2.676 on Wednesday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That’s about 5 cents less than a month ago and 7.4 cents higher than a year ago.

The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, but are still above levels in a healthy economy.

The National Association of Realtors said the number of Americans who signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes rose 5.2 percent in July. That was 19 percent below the same month last year. Home sales remain at the lowest level in more than a decade.

One bright spot: factory orders rose 0.1 percent in July, indicating some industrial growth.

PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said the numbers were mixed, which left the market searching for a direction. He thinks energy traders are waiting for Friday’s monthly unemployment report, a key indicator of the economy.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of caution ahead of those numbers,” he said.

Natural gas prices rose after the government said inventories increased by 54 billion cubic feet to about 3.106 trillion cubic feet last week. The total was 6.3 percent lower than year-ago levels but about 5.8 percent more than the five-year average.

Natural gas for October delivery gained 3.9 cents at $3.801 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil fell 0.04 cent to $2.0407 a gallon and gasoline rose 1.54 cents to $1.9045 a gallon.

In London, Brent crude was down 28 cents at $76.07 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.